When someone praises my writing, and on the odd occasion I am tempted to believe them, I remember the Dunning–Kruger effect. Stupid people think they are bright, and it’s corollary, bright people think they are stupid. If I allow myself to believe this flattery what does that make me?
The Dunning–Kruger effect is a cognitive bias in which people with limited competence in a particular domain overestimate their abilities. Some researchers also include the opposite effect for high performers: their tendency to underestimate their skills. In popular culture, the Dunning–Kruger effect is often misunderstood as a claim about general overconfidence of people with low intelligence instead of specific overconfidence of people unskilled at a particular task.
With thanks to Wikipedia.
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